Andrzej Wajda Quotes

Cinema can speak to people's consciences. I don't think I've wasted this life because I've contributed something to the course of political events.Andrzej Wajda

When a film is created, it is created in a language, which is not only about words, but also the way that very language encodes our perception of the world, our understanding of it.Andrzej Wajda

A novelty in Polish filmmaking was that it was possible to find funds for a big production. However, at the same time, the state budget committed less and less money to filmmaking.Andrzej Wajda

Also a great part of Polish industry proved to have existed only to support the Soviet military industry, and it became superfluous and incapable of being transformed into anything else. We did not foresee that or the magnitude of these phenomena.Andrzej Wajda

On the one hand, we had great filmic spectacles that brought in big audiences, adults as well as primary and secondary school students. On the other hand, there were attempts to create contemporary Polish film.Andrzej Wajda

Even better, there were established two separate committees deciding on state film funding.Andrzej Wajda

Young directors had no choice but to throw themselves into writing scripts. That did not have a positive effect on the quality of Polish cinema.Andrzej Wajda

Cinemas gained new young audiences who wanted films made for them.Andrzej Wajda

Eventually, the state's funding covered only the stages leading to presenting a film project to potential funding bodies. It was enough to produce a script, indicate casting and put together a budget to present it all, but nothing beyond that.Andrzej Wajda

It was progressively more difficult to find work in the theatre, as well.Andrzej Wajda

One might have thought that the most significant change in the film industry that would come about with a transition from the communist economy to capitalism would fundamentally concern the sources of funding.Andrzej Wajda

Why does there exist a global American entertainment industry, but there isn't an equivalent coming from France or Italy? This is the case simply because the English language opens the whole world to the American cinema.Andrzej Wajda

Suddenly, the screens were dominated by American entertainment to the extent of something like 95 percent. As a result, audiences turned away from the kinds of films that we used to make.Andrzej Wajda

Films made in the spirit of the past continued to be made.Andrzej Wajda

Television theatre, as is implied in its name, should rely on adaptations of scripts written for the theatre.Andrzej Wajda

In the same period, Polish literature also underwent some significant changes. From social-political literature, which had a great tradition and strong motivation to be that way, Polish literature changed its focus to a psychological rather than a social one.Andrzej Wajda

However, that old mode of Polish filmmaking virtually disappeared.Andrzej Wajda

It turned out that the country was helpless in the face of a new reality.Andrzej Wajda

At the same time, television theatre became more visibly active.Andrzej Wajda

By dint of that concern and because that society was willing to examine its particular reality, Solidarity could come into existence.Andrzej Wajda

In Europe, there is no television filmmaking legislation that could assist film production because private broadcasters are not interested in supporting Polish film.Andrzej Wajda

In the first years after 1989, films were partly financed from the state's budget as well as by public television. Still, except for a few special cases, most films are made this way.Andrzej Wajda

I think that adult Polish audiences, while observing what was happening in Poland, started to give in to a particular kind of anxiety.Andrzej Wajda

As I said earlier, there are no writers who could create a literary vision of the new reality.Andrzej Wajda

Previously the same Polish audiences would have been pressured into seeing cinema made for adults, films made by us about those spheres of life that were significant for us and which should be significant for our society.Andrzej Wajda